Sustainable Agriculture and Food: Four volume set (Earthscan Reference Collections)

Oriental Despotism 185

express the organizational coordination and the mobilization potential of hydrau-
lic economy and statecraft.^109

F. The Bulk of All Large Nonconstructional Industrial

Enterprises Managed also by The Hydraulic Government

1. A comparative view

A government capable of handling all major hydraulic and nonhydraulic con-
struction may, if it desires, play a leading role also in the nonconstructional
branches of industry. There are ‘feeding’ industries, such as mining, quarrying, salt
gathering, etc.; and there are finishing industries, such as the manufacture of weap-
ons, textiles, chariots, furniture, etc. Insofar as the activities in these two spheres
proceeded on a large scale, they were for the most part either directly managed or
monopolistically controlled by the hydraulic governments. Under the conditions
of Pharaonic Egypt and Inca Peru, direct management prevailed. Under more dif-
ferentiated social conditions, the government tended to leave part of mining, salt
gathering, etc. to heavily taxed and carefully supervised entrepreneurs, while it
continued to manage directly most of the large manufacturing workshops.
By combining these facts with what we know of the hydraulic and nonhydrau-
lic constructional operations of the state, we may in the following table indicate
the managerial position of the hydraulic state both in agriculture and industry. For
purposes of comparison, we include corresponding data from two other agrarian
societies and from mercantilist Europe.

Table 7.1 Government management in the spheres of agriculture and industry

Institutional

conformations

AGRICULTURE INDUSTRY

Heavy

waterworks

Farming Mining,

etc.

Construction

industry

Manufacturing

Large

shops

Small

shops

Hydraulic society + – (+)^1 +^2 +–

Coastal city states

of classical Greece

––_ –––

Medieval Europe – (+)^3 – (+)^3 (+)^3 –

Mercantilist Europe – – (–) – – –

Key

+ Predominant

+ Outstandingly significant

• Irrelevant or absent
  ( ) Trend limited or modified by factors indicated in the text
  
  
  1. Simpler conditions
  
  
  2. On a national scale
  
  
  3. On a manorial scale